William Fitz Hawley
William Fitz Hawley (1804 - January 1855) was a Canadian poet and prose author. Life Hawley was probably born in La Prairie, Lower Canada (now Quebec). What little information there is about him comes mainly from his 2 books. In the earliest, published at Montreal in 1829, he speaks of his writing being done “amidst the turmoil of business” but the nature of that business is unknown. Carl F. Klinck, “Hawley, William Fitz],” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, volume 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. Web, Oct. 29, 2016. Across the St Lawrence River from La Prairie, Montreal in the 1820s was experiencing a flurry of literary activity in English. Hawley is said to have written extensively for local periodicals, but few of his contributions have been identified. He collected manuscripts and pagers for a history of the Canadas. His collection was destroyed by fire and the project was “reluctantly abandoned.” Hawley then turned to what he described as “irregular effusions of early life.” These poems were gathered into his debut collections, Quebec, The harp, and other poems, printed at the Montreal Herald. A 2nd volume, The Unknown; or, Lays of the forest, was ready shortly afterwards and was published in Montreal early in 1831. He was appointed registrar for Huntingdon county on October 31, 1850. Writing “'The Harp',” published in Hawley's earliest volume, showed the path of poetry Hawley hoped to follow. In its lines it soon became apparent that Hawley was one for whom “blest sounds of music” were to issue from “The Western Harp’s yet untun’d strings” and that a colonial “Harp of the West” might attempt to emulate the celebrated songs and romances of the “Harp of the East” (the Near East) and of “the North” (Great Britain). In this same volume the poem “'Quebec'” was Hawley’s show-piece for “native numbers.” The technique for his elevated review of heroic events along the St Lawrence River was borrowed, with, as Richard Ernest Rashley has pointed out, only “a partial bridging of the gap” between “the old world art” and the expression of “new world experience.” The book was apparently received “in a flattering manner” by the contemporary public. Hawley named his Old World masters in the preface to his 2nd volume, The Unknown; or, Lays of the forest: Thomas Campbell, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, and Ossian. There too he cited Arabian nights’ entertainments and Moore’s Lalla Rookh as examples of how a series of independent tales could be linked, a structure he himself adopted for The Unknown. He sets 4 eastern romances (told “in the forest”) in the framework of a narrative about “the Stranger,” a young Frenchman who comes to Lower Canada to convert the Indians to a “civilized” way of life. Into this framework Hawley incorporates some accurate description in prose and verse of the manners and homes of French Canadians, apparently observed at 1st hand, and of the Rivière Saint-Maurice and the Chutes Shawinigan. Recognition “The Harp” was awarded an honorary medal from the Société pour l’Encouragement des Sciences et des Arts en Canada. Publications *''Quebec, The Harp, and other poems. Montreal: printed at the Herald and New gazette Office, 1829. *The Unknown; or, Lays of the Forest. Montreal: J.A. Hoisington, 1831. ''Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:William Fitz Hawley, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 29, 2016. See also *List of Canadian poets *Timeline of Canadian poetry References External links ;Books *William Fitz Hawley at Amazon.com ;About *Hawley, William Fitz in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Category:Anglophone Quebec people Category:Canadian poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:19th-century poets